POTW | City of Minnetrista

Occupying a large swath of the western shore of Lake Minnetonka, Minnetrista is about 25 miles west of downtown Minneapolis. The name literally translates to “Crooked Water” in the Dakota language. There are several other notable bodies of water within the city, including but not limited to Whaletail Lake, Dutch Lake, Halsted Bay, Jennings Bay, Ox Yoke Lake and Saunders Lake.

Minnetrista also faces a slight identity crisis. The city is fairly rural and is home to active corn, bean, hay, equine and other agricultural activities. But it’s also located right on the suburban fringe of the metro, so there is growing development pressure. Out of all metro cities, Minnetrista has the 8th highest percentage of sales that are classified as new construction.

For all of 2015, exactly 26.5 percent of all the sales in Minnetrista were categorized as new construction. For the 12-month period ending January 2016, new construction sales increased 128.6 percent while previously owned properties only showed a 14.1 percent increase.

Unlike the metro as a whole (see here), the premium on new construction (or the ratio of new construction prices to previously owned prices) has shrunk significantly. The median sales for new construction is $450,508; for previously owned properties, it’s $447,500. That’s a 0.7 percent premium. Two years ago, there was a roughly 63.0 percent premium on new construction in the city.

Over the last 12 months, exactly 33.3 percent of the active listings in the city have been new construction. New construction active listings surged almost 74.0 percent compared to the same 12-month period last year. By contrast, there was a 1.2 percent decrease in the number of previously owned properties for sale.

There is, however, still a significant premium on private waterfront properties in the city. Homes in that segment tend to sell for a median price of $825,000.

There has been some townhome development in the area. That development is showing up in a 323.1 percent increase in townhouse new listings. It’s also showing up in actives, pendings and closings—across the entire life cycle of a listing.

Remember: yesterday’s new listings are today’s actives are tomorrow’s pendings are the next day’s closings.